Spanish architecture studio delaVegaCanolasso has built a rectangular cabin within a pine forest in Madrid, Spain. 

Named Fresnos, the 142-square-metre house, created as part of Tini Home series run by Tini brand developing tiny mobile homes, uses the benefits of a sloping terrain. 

For this reason, the architects have evaluated the existing terrain as an environment to respect and enhance, while keeping the site's own identity and character.

The project is situated on a fairly sloping terrain, covered by full of pines and holm oaks and covered by a green mantle typical of spring.

"It’s nice when the site suggests from the beginning the spot that the house has to occupy. 

The clearing of light between the pines even drew its dimension, marking its limits that did not grow, with the desire to keep all the trees and alter the terrain as little as possible," said delaVegaCanolasso. 

"For this reason, the structure starts from the lands natural level, leaning on a wall from which a cable-stayed cantilever is born." 

"From there you can enjoy the views of the pine forest that we already sensed were privileged, during the pleasant picnics we had on what is now the terrace. A hole is cut in it to let the trunk of a pine pass through," the office added.

The house is conceived as natural, simple and pleasant as possible, while it is closed to the street and open to the landscape, incorporating the environment. 

The cabin works as a shelter that can also act "as a large porch" where users can be protected, covered in the middle of nature.

The studio wanted to make the building touch the ground as little as possible was through an industrialized system. On the other hand, at the same time the architects wanted to incorporate the grace and nuances of the traditional work. 

According to the architects, a mixed system made a lot of sense, so the team combined modules produced by tini were totally manufactured in the workshop with whitewashed manual brick walls. 

The cantilever that does not touch the ground with the mud that comes out of it, was aimed to be covered with vines and jasmine.

In the end, it formed a contrast of the current and the timeless piece, offering a rich architecture that improves over time.

"When you use an industrialized system, modulation is important, and this house is modulated. Each room with its bathroom is a tini®, and the study is another completely independent one," the office continued. 

"It is essential to separate the space where one works, which also gives us the opportunity to walk through the garden in the morning, when it is still fresh and the green of the leaves is intense."

Three more structural bays, which follow this modulation, make up the living room, dining room and kitchen. Assembled on site, the modules' cover floats over the brick wall thanks to a ripped window, which runs the entire length of these space.

Following this same concept of simplicity, the garage is a very light tramex structure that starts from the street and is supported by three metal pillars.

Accompanying the natural slope, pine and gravel sleepers give life to the staircase that winds between the trunks of the pine trees leading users to the door.

The studio leans in relation to the house, we like this gesture because it evokes the streets of the towns where at a certain moment the volumes come closer, narrowing them, to then give way to the light that opens them when reaching the square.

The garden is essentially the existing pine forest completed with various maples and sweetgum that give it the change of color with the seasons and that fresh green that the deciduous leaf has. 

"We have also planted fig, lemon and orange trees and built a pool in the lower part of the garden, where rainwater is collected and water lilies and coves grow. Thanks to a fine copper pipe, we can hear the murmur of the water from the terrace," the office added.

The architects keep each material as raw as possible as they want them to denote the passage of time in the house.

"That is why the structure is left raw, like the steel window openings," the studio explained. 

"The wood has nuances that combine with the roughness of the metal, which is why we like to combine them on the façade. In this case, carbonized recovered pine in the studio and heat- treated pine in the house."

"As we believe that houses have to transmit serenity, in the interior we used friendly tones and birch wood in the study and pine plywood in the house, combined with raw limestone floors with irregular quartering." 

"The touches of color are given by the furniture and cushions bought in Morocco," the team continued.

The construction of the house is clearly based on the fact that it is derived from the case studies that the office executed, according to the architects, those essential and timeless designs are created as a result of great ideas derived from a little effort and material.

"In this way, the essential was sought, architecture to be crucial while being the least important part of the garden, a house that is a porch, a protected space from where to enjoy the landscape," the office concluded.

Floor plan

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Structural elevations

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delaVegaCanolasso designed a cabin for a couple and their son in La Rioja, Spain. The firm also completed another two mini cabins in Plasencia and Madrid, Spain. 

Project facts

Project name: Fresnos

Architects: delaVegaCanolasso / Ignacio de la Vega + Pilar Cano-Lasso

Location: Madrid, Spain.

Area: 142m2

Project year: 2023

Construction: tini 

All images © Paco Marín.

All drawings © delaVegaCanolasso.

> via delaVegaCanolasso

cabin delaVegaCanolasso Madrid